(Harper Collins, Rs. 150)

The corporate world is fun. That’s the premise of this witty book by Bhaskar, himself a banker and the author of Jack Patel’s Dubai Dreams.

Here, Jack and his best friend Kitch land a job with a sedate British bank in Dubai. But they have no clue what is in store for them. Major changes are afoot at the bank. Jack is caught in the middle of a power struggle. And what’s more, the Football World Cup turns things topsy-turvy for the bank.

Jack escapes this madness as he flies to Africa and then to Chennai. Along the way, he encounters one hilarious situation after another. He rescues Kitch’s wife from a ghost, participates in a football quiz that can make or break his career, masters the nuances of Zulu pronunciation, encounters pirates (well, almost) and is forced to choose between the two wives of a client. It’s one crazy roller-coaster ride for Jack.

101 Myths and Realities @ the Office

Utkarsh Rai

(Portfolio, Rs. 250)

Here’s another guide on teamwork, and personnel management. Every organisation’s greatest asset is its human resource. To work well as a team, the managers need to think like the employees, and the employees need to know what the management thinks.

This book presents 101 typical workplace situations, distinguishing Myth (perceived as wisdom) from Reality (what actually happens) and suggests the best approach to take in each scenario, both for managers and employees.

The book has got Nandan Nilekani to endorse it thus: “A wonderful guide to help put your career on fast forward.”

Build, Borrow, or Buy: Solving the Growth Dilemma

Laurence Capron, Will Mitchell

(Harvard Business School Press, Rs. 995)

Build, Borrow, Buy… The resource pathways framework is built around these key strategies to help your organisation take the growth path.

But how? That’s what this tries to find out. Most companies stress on growth in one area of operation. But a company needs to focus on overall growth. So where do you start? By asking the right questions, argue the authors Capron and Mitchell (of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business), and drawing on decades of research and teaching, they find that a firm’s aptitude for determining the best resource pathways for growth has a defining impact on its success. They’ve come up with a helpful framework that reflects the practices of a variety of successful global organisations, to determine which path is best for yours.

kids are watching The Office almost like a cult - it's shows defining behavior and thought. Considering no actual work being shown although periodic meetings of staff and their interactions with established etiquette and dealing with aberrations jocularly to eliminate dissent is one strong message. Unidimensional I should say. But then can we have a equally popular desi sitcom with an alternate theory of interaction. Must try.